Live data from Hacker News

What a tweet tells us about spy satellites [video]

youtube.com

1–10 of 81 posts

Re: What a tweet tells us about spy satellites [video]

#2
That image is absolutely bonkers, the more I look at it, the more I admire the satellite's creators.

Also, the analysis around the image is fantastic. The data and methods that they used to calculate the height of the satellite, timing of picture etc. it is a treat to see for someone sitting and seeing this unfold on the sides. I remembered this article [1], of Indian Anti-Satellite Test, India claimed satellite was hit on downwards trajectory, and then released the footage with no telemetry redactions. Analysis of that footage showed that missile hit the satellite on the way up and not downwards. Same with North Korean Missile launches, any time any imagery is released or test happens, so many insights come in. OSINT community is seriously amazing. I hope more such 'leaks' occur.

[1] - https://thediplomat.com/2019/05/why-indias-asat-test-was-rec...

Re: What a tweet tells us about spy satellites [video]

#5
post #4

The good news is that there is a redacted area in the image, so Trump probably didn't just snap and post ... evidence of some limit to the impulsiveness of the commander in chief.

The black box on the top left? I'm assuming that's just redacting the classification level, which was surely Top Secret.

Re: What a tweet tells us about spy satellites [video]

#6
post #5
post #4

The good news is that there is a redacted area in the image, so Trump probably didn't just snap and post ... evidence of some limit to the impulsiveness of the commander in chief.

The black box on the top left? I'm assuming that's just redacting the classification level, which was surely Top Secret.

The interesting thing about the black box is that it is square to the frame of the image and slightly skew to the text boxes in the original intelligence product. This indicates the image posted is not simply a camera phone snap posted directly to Twitter, the image was edited before it was posted

Re: What a tweet tells us about spy satellites [video]

#9

How it was tracked back to USA 224: https://github.com/cbassa/satellite_analysis/blob/master/nah...

The really astounding part of all this is that hobbyists have been monitoring the exact orbits of all the US spy satellites for years. They know exactly where they're overhead and when. That kind of capability used to be something that only a handful of states had, and now people just do it from their homes and post it to the internet.

Re: What a tweet tells us about spy satellites [video]

#10
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The black box on the top left? I'm assuming that's just redacting the classification level, which was surely Top Secret.

The interesting thing about the black box is that it is square to the frame of the image and slightly skew to the text boxes in the original intelligence product. This indicates the image posted is not simply a camera phone snap posted directly to Twitter, the image was edited before it was posted

...are you assuming that there isn't someone at Twitter who monitors Presidential Posts before they go out. I assume there must be.
Post reply on HN